As Paula Dance campaigned for her first term as Pitt County sheriff in 2018, she routinely identified the opioid epidemic as the most pressing challenge facing law enforcement.

Among her mantras was, “You can’t arrest your way out of the crisis.”

Arresting users for drug-related offenses such as possession and thefts to support their habits is all too common, she said. But unless the addiction is addressed, offenders will simply repeat their crimes once they are released.

Enter the Sheriff’s Heroin Addiction Recovery Program, or SHARP, a bootcamp-style intervention coming soon to the Pitt County Detention Center

SHARP will offer a structured environment similar to that of a military school while also offering counseling, spiritual support, life skills, educational and vocational opportunities to detention center inmates to prepare them for a straight, sober life after they leave jail.

The inmates who participate will get their own cell block to separate them from distractions, staff will direct them through a strict regimen of classes and activities and the program will bring in volunteers from throughout the community to work with inmates, including mental health professionals, pastors, employers and educators.

“When they come into the intake process upon being arrested, generally they are at their lowest point,” Capt. Chad Singleton, an administrator at the detention center, said of addicts processed in Greenville. “And we believe that is the time to capture the person who wants to make a change. When they hit rock bottom, often times, that’s when they turn for spiritual support or some other type of support so we want to capture it.”

An increasing number of addicts in local jails is among the symptoms of an opioid epidemic that continues to grip eastern North Carolina, the rest of the state and nation. As prescription medications such as Oxycontin proliferated in the 2000s, more people got hooked and turned to harder, cheaper opioids like heroin and fentanyl.

Something, anything, needs to be done, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone.

“We've had more than 50 overdose deaths in Nash County since the beginning of the year,” Stone said. “Our task force is working full time. The public needs to know opioids are highly addictive and very deadly drugs. Please ensure your families don't even try it.”

Stone said he'd like to see stiffer punishment for dealers and faster court case resolution.

“It's killing people,” he said.

The crisis has left local authorities dealing with an increasing number of overdoses and rising crime. To combat the problem, law enforcement and state policy makers have developed an overlapping approach of strict regulation, enforcement and rehabilitation.

State Rep. Greg Murphy, a Greenville physician, has introduced multiple pieces of legislation to help stem the flow of prescription medication into the wrong hands. The Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act in 2017 was the first to established strict controls on prescriptions in North Carolina.

“The opioid epidemic in the United States really started in the 90s, and a lot of the problems we had encountered were the over prescribing of opioids by providers,” Murphy said. “So what we did with the STOP Act is try to influence and restrict the flow of over-prescribing by providers. And it took a lot of hard work and working with different constituencies and stakeholders,” Murphy said.

The act set a new standard for providers to follow before prescribing meds, he said. “What we did is set a bar for acute pain, not dealing with chronic pain. That’s been the hallmark of the STOP Act.”

Other components to the STOP Act include:

■ Limits on the number of days worth of opioids that may be lawfully prescribed upon initial consultation for acute injuries

■ A requirement that prescribers use the N.C. Controlled Substances Reporting System, a database that records all controlled substance prescriptions dispensed in outpatient pharmacies across the state.

■ A requirement that physician assistants and nurse practitioners at pain clinics consult with supervising physicians prior to prescribing opioids.

“You now have to go in and query a controlled substance reporting system to see and make sure a patient isn’t getting medicines from other doctors, that they’re not getting too much,” Murphy said. “It was just a robust legislative effort to stop the overflow and over prescribing by providers. It’s really worked. We’ve actually cut down the number of opioid prescriptions in the state ... by about 40 percent.”

State Rep. Lisa Barnes, R-Nash, said more legislative efforts are in the pipeline.

“A fellow freshman legislator who is a former sheriff has the death by distribution bill,” Barnes said. “If someone sells opioids to a buyer who dies, the seller can be charged in that person's death. It's not meant for a friend who gives to a friend, but drug dealers will be charged.”

A followup to the STOP Act, the Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Enforcement Act, approved in 2018, addresses the complexities of how law enforcement respond to opioid abuse and overdoses. The HOPE Act:

■ Funds an additional SBI special agent to coordinate local drug investigators.

■ Expands and strengthens the Controlled Substances Reporting System by adding data on veterinary drugs, National Provider Identifier information, and the name and ID of a person receiving schedule II or III drugs.

■ Clarifies that fentanyl trafficking is covered by North Carolina drug trafficking statutes.

■ Invests $10 million a year in community-based drug treatment and recovery services.

■ Invests $1 million a year in naloxone to protect law enforcement officers and the citizens they serve.

Naloxone is a nasal spray used to reverse most overdoses caused by certain opioids. Law enforcement and emergency medical services in the state began equipping responders with a brand of the spray, Narcan, over the last several years. Officials say It has saved hundreds of lives statewide.

Eddie Buffaloe, chief of the Elizabeth City Police Department, said his officers carry at least 1 to 2 doses of Narcan with them in their patrol cars. They undergo annual training with EMS officials on how to administer the opiate-blocker to someone who has overdosed.

While police most certainly want to help people who have overdosed, the use of Narcan doesn’t solve the widespread opioid epidemic, he said.

“We’ve got to get them to treatment,” the chief said.

He called the lack of treatment facilities the “missing link” to finding ways to properly address the crisis.

“Law enforcement is not a treatment facility,” Buffaloe said.

Buffaloe said when possible, police try to divert low-level drug offenders to alternative sources that keep them out of the court system and out of jail.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” he said.

Buffaloe said he understands the challenges communities face in dealing with the crisis and knows much more work is needed.

“I would say from a law enforcement perspective, I don’t think it’s getting better at this point,” he said.

The law enforcement approach toward opioids has been changing over the last several years, said Greenville Police Chief Mark Holtzman.

“The presence of needles or the drugs themselves is secondary to us. We just want to make sure people stay alive and give them a chance to get back on the right path of treatment and recover from their addiction,” he said.

Combating the epidemic is personal for Holtzman.

“In my last department, I had two police officers that worked for me who had lost their kids to heroin overdoses in the same year. Both of those officers had worked in a narcotic unit at one point in their careers,” he said. “It can impact anybody. None of us are immune.”